A Nightmare on Elm Street Review

Not many horror movies from before the 2000s survived the test of time. By this we mean that they have achieved cult status and are highly revered, but they are already a long way from causing terror. It is that those times, and especially that of the 80s, were plagued by impossible monsters that lived in unlikely places for real life. Today, we also come to talk about a monster taken from a fantasy, but this one inhabits such a recurrent space in our daily life, that it is still one of the darkest entities 30 years after its passage through the big screen. To learn more about him, join us in this review of A Nightmare on Elm Street (Nightmare on Hell Street , 1984)

Nancy Thompson and her group of friends are forced to deal with a mysterious man who relentlessly pursues them. The problem is that this area of ​​persecution is the dreams of the characters, the only place where they can face their pursuer.

Dreams

What is it that allowed this first film to have nine more sequels? It's probably the theme around which it revolves. Dreams and nightmares are those sectors of real life that, despite being widely studied by psychologists, still contain some mystery . There are countless times when a horror film used the resource of making a scene that takes place in a nightmare and then revealing that it was false . Wes Craven knew how to see an unusual potential in the dream themes, whose spaces represent the place and space of advantage of Freddy Krueger. An enemy who kills his harmless victims in nightmares that he designs and takes advantage of to win, seems an invincible enemy.

And it is. Unlike other monsters that appeared around 1980, Freddy Krueger does not exist. It is not something tangible or a being that inhabits the earthly. However, he is always there when the characters go to sleep. In short, Wes Craven managed to create one of the best horror film characters of the 80s, which is the hybrid between the impossible monsters that we already mentioned, and the psychological enemies that characterized and continue to characterize the horror films that appeared later. from the 2000s.

The basic idea

Still, there was one thing about this movie that was more terrifying than Freddie Krueger: the moment when Wes Craven revealed his source of inspiration. In an interview, the director said that he had gotten the idea for the film from a true story that took place in the 70s. It was about a group of Khmer who, after fleeing to the United States because of the genocide taking place in Cambodia , suffered from extremely disturbing nightmares that led to the decision to avoid sleep. Some time later, some ended up dying in their sleep.

On the other hand, the film contains a bibliographical element. Craven also explained that Freddy Krueger was inspired by an old man who, in the director's childhood, walked with an eerie gait along the side fence of his house. One day, the man discovered Wes spying on him and gave him a look that accompanied him until the making of the feature film we are dealing with today. That may be why Craven wanted Freddy Krueger to be a child molester in the first place. But a number of abuse cases had shocked the California city and the entire United States, so it was decided to remove that trait from the villain.

underlying meanings

This film was analyzed in detail by several film critics, because many traced in it certain themes related to the passage from childhood to adolescence. According to experts on the subject, the appearance of Freddy Krueger in the lives of the protagonists entailed the loss of innocence typical of childhood and taking charge of problems without the help of an adult, since Freddy only attacked adolescents.

This is where A Nightmare on Elm Street becomes the brand that later becomes the mark of thousands of other productions.